© 2004, Susan Sweeney / Connex Network Inc.
Before we begin, Amazon.com has just jumped into the search engine game with A9 Search. Check it out at http://www.a9.com. This is an engine to watch over the coming months!
This is the last in a series of newsletters on how to choose the right keywords for optimizing your Web site. Next issue we will get into applying the keywords you have chosen to your Web site. At this stage you have a big list of keyword phrases. Your objective now is to sort and choose the keyword phrases you plan to use.
Tips & Techniques
Now that you have your master keyword list, probably with a couple hundred keyword phrases, you have to drill down and figure out which keywords you are going to target for each page of your Web site that will be optimized. Realistically you will be able to emphasize 2 or 3 keyword phrases on a single page, and maybe a few others as spill-over. Keep in mind that each page you optimize should lean towards a different set of keywords. Why? What good is buying a 100 lottery tickets for the next draw if they all have the same number? It is the same idea here.
When
reviewing your keyword list you need to consider
a) which keywords are vital to your objectives,
b) which keywords are popular enough to generate reasonable,
sustainable traffic and
c) which keywords do not have so much competition that
it would be counterproductive from a time and effort standpoint to target
them.
As a hotel, going after the word “travel” on its own would prove a waste of effort. “Travel” is a vastly popular word, which is good, but it is too generic and too competitive to be worthwhile.
You will have to make judgement calls from time to time. In some cases a word will be very relevant and very popular, but also competitive to the point of being intimidating. If this word is essential to your business then go for it – do not leave it on the sidelines.
When sorting your keywords keep it in the back of your mind that it is not just about the volume of traffic coming to your Web site. You can easily find keyword phrases that bring in a solid volume of traffic, but if that traffic is not targeted and the buyers do not convert then it is not of much use to you in the long run. Your efforts should be focused around those keyword phrases that bring in a fair volume of traffic and that are highly targeted. The ROI for such keywords will be much higher.
It is time to organize your keywords. Assuming you have been recording your keywords in a table or spreadsheet of some sort then organizing your keywords will be a much easier task.
You want to organize your keywords according to their level of importance. When complete you will have a refined master keyword list that you can reference for optimizing your Web site. Also, different directories allow different numbers of keywords to be submitted. Because you have organized the list with the most important words first you can simply include as many of your keywords as the directory will allow.
You can begin editing the list by deleting words that either are too generic (for example, “business”) or are not appropriate for keyword purposes. Review each word and ask yourself if people would search using that word if they were looking for the products and services available through your Web site.
For each page that you are optimizing take a copy of the comprehensive master list and delete words that are not appropriate for that particular page. Reprioritize the remaining keywords based on the content of the page you are indexing. This is then the keyword list for that particular page. Repeat this procedure for every page you will be optimizing. This is also a great procedure when you are developing the keyword meta-tag for each page of your site.
You now have your organized master list(s) of keywords. The next step is to apply the keywords throughout your Web site in the appropriate locations. This is where we will go next in the next newsletter.
What I covered above is a very basic approach to organizing keywords. If you are up to the challenge you can take it further by adding weights and multipliers to your keyword list to further refine it. A basic weighting model might include:
1. Keyword Relevance – You assign a percentage value to a keyword phrase based on how related to your business it is and the estimated probability it will be used by your target market in their searches.
2. Keyword Popularity – The number of times a keyword phrase has been used over a period of time. You can use the WordTracker tool (http://www.wordtracker.com/) covered in the last newsletter to provide you with this data. The “Count” field in WordTracker will tell you how many times a keyword phrase has been searched for over the last couple of months. If you prefer, you can break this down further by referencing individual search engines such as Google.
For each keyword phrase you multiple the keyword relevancy and popularity together to formulate a weighted search importance count. From there you sort your keywords and use that as your refined master list; or you can take it a step further and compare the sorted list against the estimated competition. You can reference WordTracker for estimated competition or go to a search engine such as Google, run a query, and look at the total number of search matches it returns for competitive proxy.
To get a little more specific you can narrow your search to keywords in a title tag. The reason for doing this is that optimizing a title tag is a given when it comes to search engine optimization, so it only makes sense to look at who else is doing it as well. On Google you can enter in “allintitle: keyword phrase,” less the quotes, to search for all pages with the noted keywords in its title tag. This approach is a little more focused than simply looking for all pages with a certain set of keywords because the keywords might just be there in passing, as a part of an article, and not something the site is intentionally trying to target. If they keywords are found in the title tag then there is a better chance its reason for being is intentional.
Glance over the top ranked pages to see if they are using the keyword phrases in their page page copy, page headers, “alt” attributes, and so on. If they are then you can safely assume that it is an optimized Web site. The more sites you find with these elements, the greater your competition and vice versa. To dig even deeper you can compare your site’s link popularity against competing sites as another weight because link popularity influences rankings, which further indicates the competitive landscape for a particular keyword phrase. Take your keyword list, which is sorted by relevancy, and then compare it to the anticipated competition to determine whether or not a keyword phrase is good to target.
You can choose to keep it basic while you are learning the ropes, but as you become more familiar you will want to be more critical in selecting your keywords to boost your performance in the search engines. The more knowledge you are armed with, the better prepared you will be to optimize your Web site.
Here are some additional tips to keep in mind when refining your keywords master list:
Plural and Singular Keywords - Some people argue using just the plural version of a keyword and others say it is good to use both. Is your target market looking for both? As an example, some people might search for ‘game’ while others might search for ‘games.’ Google matches exactly what the user searches for so it is important to use both where possible.
Using the Names of your Competitors – There is often the question as to whether to include your competitor’s name in your keywords. This follows the premise that if someone searches for them, they will find you as well. Never include a competitor’s name in your keywords. Due to the fact that several of the search engines read only small amount of content for keywords you would be losing vital space to include keywords that describe or even name a competitor and competing products or services. In addition, there have been recent legal battles regarding the use of competitors’ names within one’s keywords.
Common Misspellings of Words – There are many words that people misspell on a frequent basis. The question here is do you include those misspelled keywords in your site or not? Sure, people are searching for them and they would bring traffic to your site, but on the other hand who would really want to deal with a company that is incapable of spelling the names of the products and services sold on its Web site? This is a touchy subject and I would make note of the misspelled keywords in your master list so that you have a record of them, but I would shy away from using them on your Web site.
Case Sensitivity – Some search engines are not case sensitive while others are. Regardless, most people search in lower case and to keep this process simple you should record your original keyword master list using lowercase for now. Once you get into finalizing your keyword list you might notice that people are actually searching for the proper spelling of a word and not the lowercase version, in which case you would reflect the changes in your keyword list.
Stop and Filter Words – Filter words are words search engines simply ignore during searches. Stop words are extremely common words that search engines use as triggers to stop grabbing content on a given page, such as ‘and,’ ‘a,’ and ‘the.’ Some search engines view stop words and filter words as the same thing, but you need only remember one thing - search engines bypass these words to save time as they are not considered to add any value to the search. It is best to try and avoid using stop words where possible in your keyword phrases.
You
can identify stop words by going to a search engine and entering the
word you want to test into the search field. Run the search and if no
results are returned that you most likely have yourself a stop word,
but if there are results returned then it is a not a stop word for that
particular search engine. Here is a sample list of some of the more
common stop words on record from a list compiled by Search
Engine World:
| a ii about above according across 39 actually ad adj ae af after afterwards ag again against ai al all almost alone along already also although always am among amongst an and another any anyhow anyone anything anywhere ao aq ar are aren aren't around arpa as at au aw az b ba bb bd be became because become becomes becoming been before beforehand begin beginning behind being below beside besides between beyond bf bg bh bi billion bj bm bn bo both br bs bt but buy bv bw by bz c ca can can't cannot caption cc cd cf cg ch ci ck cl click cm cn co co. com copy could couldn couldn't cr cs cu cv cx cy cz |
d de did didn didn't dj dk dm do does doesn doesn't don don't down during dz e each ec edu ee eg eh eight eighty either else elsewhere end ending enough er es et etc even ever every everyone everything everywhere except f few fi fifty find first five fj fk fm fo for former formerly forty found four fr free from further fx g ga gb gd ge get gf gg gh gi gl gm gmt gn go gov gp gq gr gs gt gu gw gy h had has hasn hasn't have haven haven't he he'd he'll he's help hence her here here's hereafter hereby herein hereupon hers herself him himself his hk hm hn home homepage how however hr ht htm html http hu hundred |
i i'd i'll i'm i've i.e. id ie if il im in inc inc. indeed information instead int into io iq ir is isn isn't it it's its itself j je jm jo join jp k ke kg kh ki km kn kp kr kw ky kz l la last later latter lb lc least less let let's li like likely lk ll lr ls lt ltd lu lv ly m ma made make makes many maybe mc md me meantime meanwhile mg mh microsoft might mil million miss mk ml mm mn mo more moreover most mostly mp mq mr mrs ms msie mt mu much must mv mw mx my myself mz n na namely nc ne neither net netscape never nevertheless new next nf ng ni nine ninety nl no nobody none nonetheless noone nor not nothing now nowhere np nr nu nz |
o of off often om on once one one's only onto or org other others otherwise our ours ourselves out over overall own p pa page pe per perhaps pf pg ph pk pl pm pn pr pt pw py q qa r rather re recent recently reserved ring ro ru rw s sa same sb sc sd se seem seemed seeming seems seven seventy several sg sh she she'd she'll she's should shouldn shouldn't si since site six sixty sj sk sl sm sn so some somehow someone something sometime sometimes somewhere sr st still stop su such sv sy sz t taking tc td ten text tf tg test th than that that'll that's the their them themselves then thence there there'll there's thereafter thereby therefore therein thereupon these |
they they'd they'll they're they've thirty this those though thousand three through throughout thru thus tj tk tm tn to together too toward towards tp tr trillion tt tv tw twenty two tz u ua ug uk um under unless unlike unlikely until up upon us use used using uy uz v va vc ve very vg vi via vn vu w was wasn wasn't we we'd we'll we're we've web webpage website welcome well were weren weren't wf what what'll what's whatever when whence whenever where whereafter whereas whereby wherein whereupon wherever whether which while whither who who'd who'll who's whoever NULL whole whom whomever whose why will with within without won won't would wouldn wouldn't ws www x y ye yes yet you you'd you'll you're you've your yours yourself yourselves yt yu z za zm zr 10 z |
Modifiers – Forget for a moment that WordTracker says a particular keyword phrase is not used a lot. A modifier is a keyword you add to your primary keyword phrase to give it a boost. Use modifiers to leverage your optimization performance regardless of what WordTracker says. For example, a modifier might be descriptive word or a geographic area, such as Atlanta. As a side note, local search is becoming increasingly popular so if the local market plays a significant role in the success of your business then be sure to use geographic modifiers accordingly.
Multiple Word Keyword Phrases – 2 or 3 keyword phrases perform better than single keywords. According to OneStat.com people tend to use 2 and 3 word phrases when performing a search online. The number of words used in a search phrase in order of popularity follows:
· 2 words – 32.58%
· 3 words – 25.61%
· 1 word – 19.02%
· 4 words – 12.83%
· 5 words – 5.64%
· 6 words – 2.32%
· 7 words – 0.98%
Not only are multiple keyword phrases used more often by searchers, but it also enables you to be more descriptive in your keyword phrases. Use multiple word keyword phrases when optimizing your Web site!
You should now have a good understanding of how to pick the right keywords for your Web site. In the next issue we will continue on the topic of Search Engine Optimization to cover how and where to apply keywords on your Web site.
Tools & Resources
For a refresher or if you missed the first two newsletters in the Search Engine Optimization series you can view them in the archive on by Web site at:
Search Engine Marketing Fundamentals – Part 1
http://www.susansweeney.com/newsletter/hottopicvolume2issue7.html
Search Engine Marketing Fundamentals – Part 2
http://www.susansweeney.com/newsletter/hottopicvolume2issue8html
Link popularity is a closely related topic and I advise you to review the article on my Web site at:
Link Popularity Tips
http://www.susansweeney.com/newsletter/hottopicvolume2issue4.html